MOTOR SPORT:AFTER THE brief blip of a last-lap defeat in a thrilling, race-soaked race in Canada a fortnight ago, Sebastian Vettel resumed his domination of the 2011 season with an almost casual drive to victory at a European Grand Prix that was the somnolent opposite of the Montreal event.
In the run-up to the race it had been speculated a rule clarification governing engine mapping might eat into Red Bull Racing’s dominance, the theory being that the key to the team’s stunning pace, in qualifying at least, can be attributed to technology whereby more downforce is created by blowing hot exhaust gasses through the rear diffuser via engine management. With a ban on extreme maps in place for Valencia, would Red Bull fall back into the clutches of their rivals? “Everyone will lose out something,” Vettel said of the technical change. “People expect us to lose more than others but I disagree.”
He was right to do so. In qualifying Vettel comfortably thumped in a ferociously quick pole position-winning lap and was only challenged by team-mate Mark Webber who lined up second on the grid less than two tenths of a second adrift of the champion. Beyond them lay another three tenths back to the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and more again to the fourth-placed Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
Yesterday, the same simple pace advantage applied. After a few seconds of pressure from Webber in the short run down to turn one, Vettel was free and clear, quickly stretching to a three-second lead over Fernando Alonso, who had stolen ahead of Webber on the entry to turn one when the Australian was forced to fend off a hard-charging Felipe Massa.
And that was largely that. In his routine pit stops tyres came off the German’s car, fresh tyres went on, he was bundled back out on the circuit and cruised to the chequered flag. The only incongruous moment was sounded when the runaway title leader crossed the finish line and let loose a long whoop of joy when a deep yawn might have been more appropriate.
Vettel though was insistent the exclamation was warranted for a race he said was one of his best all season. “Maybe from the outside, it looked like a boring race,” he said. “But I enjoy it so much when it’s between you and the car every single lap. For some reason I enjoy this track, last year I had a very smooth weekend and again this year from beginning to the end. We managed to put everything together and it was faultless this weekend, so I’m very happy.”
Immediately behind Vettel any movement was simply down to being quicker in the pitlane. During the drivers’ first visit, Webber managed to leapfrog the marginally slower Alonso. Thereafter, the pair snaked around in that formation, neither looking able to make a convincing move to either evade pursuit or make good an assault, until the final stop when Webber stayed out on track slightly too long. The drop in his lap times on worn tyres was just enough to allow Alonso to sneak back to second, a position he said gave him great pleasure.
“It’s my first podium in Valencia. I missed this trophy (in the past),” he said. “At home I have trophies from all Formula One circuits I’ve raced at, apart from Abu Dhabi and India, obviously we race there this year, so now that I have this here in Valencia Abu Dhabi and India will be the next target to complete the collection.”
With the top two seeming to have enjoyed a sunny afternoon ride around Valencia it would have been churlish of Webber to sound a disharmonious note and the Red Bull driver duly offered up this European Grand Prix as his best performance of the year to date.
“It was the closest I have been for a while,” he said “I think I am getting better. Today’s race proved that, up until the last 15 per cent, where it didn’t quite go our way. I was happy with my performance and I will come back better for the next race.”
Behind Webber, the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished fourth and sixth respectively, the pair being split by the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, and with Nico Rosberg racing to a lonely and incident-free seventh, it was left to Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari to provide the day’s only battling performance, the Spaniard maximising a two-stop strategy to climb from 18th on the grid to eighth and three points.
(57 Laps): 1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1hr 39mins 36.169secs, 2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:39:47.060, 3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:40:03.424, 4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:40:22.359, 5 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:40:27.874, 6 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:40:36.234, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:41:14.259, 8 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 Lap, 9 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India at 1 Lap, 10 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault at 1 Lap, 11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari at 1 Lap, 12 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams at 1 Lap, 13 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 Lap, 14 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India at 1 Lap, 15 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault at 1 Lap, 16 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari at 1 Lap, 17 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP at 1 Lap, 18 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams at 1 Lap, 19 Heikki Kovalainen Fin Lotus F1 at 2 Laps, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 at 2 Laps, 21 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing at 2 Laps, 22 Jerome d’Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing at 2 Laps, 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 at 3 Laps, 24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 at 3 Laps.
Drivers: 1 S Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 186pts, 2 J Button (Gbr) McLaren 109, 3 M Webber (Aus) Red Bull 109, 4 L Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 97, 5 F Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 87, 6 F Massa (Bra) Ferrari 42, 7 N Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 32, 8 V Petrov (Rus) Renault 31, 9 N Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 30, 10 M Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 26, 11 K Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 25, 12 A Sutil (Ger) Force India 10.
Manufacturers: 1 Red Bull 295pts, 2 McLaren 206, 3 Ferrari 129, 4 Renault 61, 5 Mercedes GP 58, 6 Sauber-Ferrari 27, 7 Scuderia Toro Rosso 16, 8 Force India 12, 9 Williams 4, 10 Lotus F1 0, 11 HRT-F1 0, 12 Virgin Racing 0
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